Getting your friends and family hooked on Marvel: Contest of Champions

Marvel: Contest of Champions is one of the most popular games on Android right now, and with good reason. We've already talked about why it's so popular, but let's face it: a game like this is made to be played with your friends. Between in game chat, and building an Alliance out of people that you know, the experience gets even better when you're playing with folks you already know.

Here are the thing you should know, to get your friends hooked.

Get them interested

Interest them

The first thing you'll want to do is get your friends interested in Marvel: Contest of Champions. Thankfully this game isn't a hard sell, so long as you've got friends who enjoy fighting games, or the Marvel universe. It's easy to pick up and play, and has fantastic graphics for a mobile game.

If you game on your phone, you know that it's actually pretty easy to sucker your friends into playing with you. Unlike most casual games, there isn't an easy way to send an invite to get your friends playing with you. That ends up being more of a good thing, than a bad thing. You'll have to actually show your friends the game, or send them a link. This also means that you won't accidentally spam people with invites, which is always a good thing. Facebook gamers, we're looking at you.

Within the first few matches you can tell if this game is going to be for you.

The great thing about Marvel: Contest of Champions is that it's a really well-rounded game. It certainly isn't for everyone, and if your friends haven't been fans of fighting games in the past, it might not be for them. For the rest of us though, within the first few matches you can tell if this game is going to be for you. This comes in handy when trying to get your friends interested, since you can pique their interest just by handing over your phone for a match or two.

The last untapped place to look for friends to recruit for your cause are those friends who have gotten hooked on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This game revolves around characters from the Marvel movies, and introducing it to your movie friends can't be a bad thing. Your best hope is that they give it a shot, and then start to obsessively play until they get their favorite characters. It happens. Trust us.

Getting your friends interested is the only way you're going to be able to hook them. Show them the game, wax poetic about the number of characters or the size of the universe, but unless you get their interest piqued you'll never be able to fully suck them into Marvel: Contest of Champions.

Play together

Play together

The real point of getting your friends, or family playing Marvel: Contest of Champions is so that you aren't playing by yourself. The best way to play together is by all by building your own Alliance and filling it with members that you know. Being part of an Alliance is a fairly big part of game play, and having a tight knit Alliance only adds to the fun inherent in things.

While most of the game play you'll encounter is strictly single player, Alliance missions brings a multiplayer aspect. You won't be fighting next to your friends, but you'll need each other's help to move forward and continue the quest. You can join any old Alliance, but it's doubtful that you'll have any real attachment to joining a group of people you never talk to.

It's easy to shower your friends in gifts when they're just getting started

Instead, building an Alliance from the ground up gives everyone a feeling of ownership. Playing with your friends involves working for the same goals, and that's exactly what Alliance play is about. It also means that asking for help isn't a shot in the dark and is beneficial to everybody involved. There are new Alliance modes currently in development as well. These include Alliance vs. Alliance missions and base attacks. While none of these mission types are available yet, it's worth it to note that they are on the way. Especially since it will only add to the ways that you can play with friends.

You can add friends via their usernames, and exchange messages and gifts. It's easy to shower your friends in gifts when they're just getting started, especially if you have an overflow from completing quests (which will happen if you're grinding through quests). All you'll need to do is add a friend through the social tab, and then enter their username. Since picking up heroes in the game is entirely random, when you play together you can also compare your hero rosters against one another. This comes in handy if you and your friends are competitive, since you can duel each other to show who has the best set of heroes. While Marvel: Contest of Heroes isn't really a multiplayer game in terms of gameplay, there are plenty of ways that you and your friends can enjoy this game together.

Choose the right people

Choose the right people

Marvel: Contest of Champions is a really fun game for those people who are going to enjoy it, but it definitely isn't a game for everyone. It revolves around a storyline that hopes you have at least a basic idea of the characters within the Marvel universe, and is an out-and-out fighting game. While getting past a lack of knowledge about the fictional universe is doable, overcoming a dislike of fighting games is less likely.

That means that this game might not be one you want to play with your kids either, depending on their age. You don't have the ability to lock in-app purchases, and there are daily popups about the current deals in the store. However the violence displayed on your screen isn't particularly bloody or gory, instead it's what you'd probably call 'fantasy violence'.

If you have friends who regularly play Candy Crush or Clash of Clans those are probably your people

We are in an era when even the people you might not expect can get hooked on a game as well-made as Marvel: Contest of Champions. If you have friends who regularly play Candy Crush or Clash of Clans, those are probably your people. Mention Contest of Champions casually when they're cursing about how they need to wait for energy to recharge and you might get lucky and have them check it out then and there.

There isn't actually a bad way to try and get your friends and family hooked, and only you know the best way to go about it. There is plenty good to rave about to them, until they finally cave to your ceaseless begging and download the game themselves. Are you playing with friends, or did you prefer to play your mobile games without family being involved? Let us know in the comments!

Jen Karner

Jen is a staff writer who spends her time researching the products you didn't know you needed. She's also a fantasy novelist and has a serious Civ VI addiction. You can follow her on Twitter.